Total sales at the country’s three leading discount chains, including E-Mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus, expanded 3.7 percent in December from a year earlier, a turnaround from a 0.5 percent on-year contraction tallied in the previous month, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

Sales of daily household goods and miscellaneous products advanced 5.8 percent and 0.5 percent each over the cited period, but sales of home appliances shrank 2.4 percent last month. Food sales, which account for more than half of sales by the key discount chains, grew 3.5 percent on-year in December.

Combined sales at the three major department stores, including Lotte, Shinsegae and Hyundai, showed a double digit on-year growth of 11 percent in December, a turnaround from a 0.5 percent on-year reduction a month before.